Barefoot March Madness with Merrell’s and Mud!

Run for your Lives GA March 3 2012

Merrell Trail Glove Review – Barefoot Shoes

So i have put about 50-60 miles on my Merrell Trail Gloves now and thought i would post a review on the ownership experience so far.

http://www.merrell.com/US/en-US/Product.mvc.aspx/22875M/60904/Mens/Barefoot-Run-Trail-Glove

Sophie and Simon's new barefoot Merrell Trail Gloves

I have read a few reviews and criticisms of the Trail Glove which i feel to be unfair as the review seems to have forgotten that the shoe is a “Trail” (The clue is in the name) shoe and not designed for running on the hard top. For my part i have had nothing but a positive 3 months with my shoes. My 9 year old daughter also has a pair and loves them,

The Trail Glove is a 6.2 oz zero drop minimalist trail shoe. It has a Vibram sole and a 1mm impact plate in the mid sole to take some of the shock absorption away from the foot when hitting stones etc.

The inside is seamless and so designed for you to not wear socks with the shoe. The shoe required no breaking in and has never rubbed or caused any blisters of any kind. It also has a Aegis® antimicrobial solution footbed that claims to resist odor. Which i think works pretty well as they still smell pretty good and nothing like my soccer boots that i wear socks in. So a big thumbs up there. It also helps that the shoes are machine washable.

So far my shoes have shown very little wear and i would expect many hundreds of miles in the shoes. The soles being quality Virbram’s you would expect this and the uppers are the usual high quality you expect from Merrell.

The fit is great for my feet. My feet are narrow  at the arch and then wide at the mid foot and toes. The trail gloves have been criticized for being too narrow at the arch. I feel this to be somewhat an unfair criticism  as you need a trail shoe to be tight and glove like as you don’t want the the shoe to move independently underfoot when running on slopes or difficult surfaces etc. Something you don’t need from a standard running shoe. The toe box is very wide giving plenty of room for your toes to splay out and feel the ground as you are running. The rubber bumper around the toes providing you with that extra protection when hitting the rough stuff.

All in all i give the shoes a solid 8 out of 10. These are great minimalist trail shoes. High quality, offering you strong foot protection and still allowing plenty of feeling. The only downsides are potentially if the narrow fit around your arch is going to be a problem and they are slightly more expensive than the Virbram equivalents at $110

Related articles

• What’s Been on My Feet Lately? – Preview of Three Minimalist Road Shoes From New Balance, Merrell, and Adidas (runblogger.com)
• Running Form and Efficiency with your Stride (barefeat.wordpress.com)
• My Review of Merrell Pace Glove Cross-Training Shoes – Women’s (fromfatkidtofab.wordpress.com)

Barefoot Running Stress Fractures. A theory from @joemaller

Here is a great theory from Joe Maller (@joemaller) on the stress fractures that some barefoot runners or should i say minimalist shoe wearing runners are seeing when they try too much too soon. I had always thought that it was the impact that was causing the fractures in our feet. Due to not allowing out bones to strengthen properly.

Joe however put forward the theory that its the increased frictional forces that the minimalist shoes allow us to produce while running that are causing these. He specifically mentions that the injuries tend to happen several months into training as speed increases.

I find this a compelling argument as i am finding my overall pace increasing and i am running a full min/mi faster than i was prior to wearing the Merrell’s. It’s a great piece and well worth the read.

http://joemaller.com/2861/barefoot-running-stress-fractures-a-theory/

How much is too much too fast? (TMTF)

So you’re looking to get into barefoot running. You go out and pick up a new pair of Merrell’s or Vibram’s and ready and raring to go. But how much should you do. There is a huge amount of data on the web about running form and listening to your body. There is also considerable information including warning labels on the boxes of those shoes to slow down and take it easy. All great information and excellent advice.

I am new to barefoot (read minimalist shoe) running only about a month into it now. I realize that i have to strengthen my feet, Achilles and calf muscles and i am taking it steady. I am only running 5 miles at a time and probably running half that on grass. The running is great. I feel fantastic. My form is really coming along, my foot strikes are light, frequent and midfoot. I am working on my arm movements (thanks Verity), My energy and efficiency in running coming along nicely as I could go on further if I were not “taking it steady”

I’m not suffering any aches or pains that would worry me so my body i feel is telling me all the right things, so should i press on? This thread on Runners World (http://www.runnersworld.com/community/forums/runner-communities/barefoot-running/please-slow-down) has me already well over doing things, as they are taking 6 or more months to build up to 2 miles in some cases which seems incredibly slow to me.

The thing that scares me most is a stress fracture. Common with “too much too fast (TMTF)” syndrome  and barefoot running. BLAM! 6 to 8 weeks out, putting a major halt to my running, races and screwing up my soccer as well. But when your body is loving what it is doing and all the feed back is positive what is a man to do? Do i push on?

As a follow-up i did my best ever run today. I finally broke into the 8 min/mile pace over 4.6 miles 30+ seconds per mile faster than i have ever run in running shoes with a heel strike.

http://runkeeper.com/user/simonjcole/activity/61715470?channel=web.activity.shared.facebook.auto&utm_campaign=SharedActivity&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=Ref

So do i push on? How much is too much too fast?

Merrell Down and Dirty Mud Run 10K

Running Form and Efficiency with your Stride

It came to me this morning during my run, Somewhat of an epiphany. After my rather heavy and laborious run of two days ago ( blogged about here in my “back to sneakers ohhh dear” post) in sneakers and then cruising through the exact same run barely out of breath and feeling no tiredness in the legs, running in my Merrell Trail Gloves. It came to me. It’s all about EFFICIENCY!

I have been really focusing on my barefoot running form and that’s going pretty well. It occurred to me when i am wearing my Merrell’s, several things happen. My stride shortens as i concentrate on landing on the mid-foot and in doing so find my stride landing below my body. Now I am no expert and as you can see from the video below i may still be slightly over stepping. I welcome your opinion on this. I have read that ideally I should be trying to land “behind” me.

This shortening of my stride must in turn be allowing me to better use the natural elasticity in my ligaments, in an overall more efficient running form. Noticeably so. I don’t know but i need to pick up a pedometer so i can check my stride timing. I must be closer to the optimal 180bpm running barefoot. Two days ago for the same run my legs felt tired and heavy, it was not an enjoyable run. Today felt fantastic as i cruised home effortlessly and could have gone on much further had my Achilles and calves been stronger.

I shot a short video of my form running in traditional running shoes as a comparison below.

My run today is here http://runkeeper.com/user/simonjcole/activity/60972499

Related articles

• Back to sneakers today, ohh dear (barefeat.wordpress.com)
• Why you should run barefoot (gazaliahmad.com)
• Barefoot running: an overview of the science | Guardian Sport Network (guardian.co.uk)
• Running Barefoot: The First Steps (onlineshoes.com)

Back to sneakers today, ohh dear

Image via Wikipedia

I thought i would give my feet a break after reading a bunch of posts on taking it really slowly moving into barefeet running over at Runners World. Using the opportunity to have plenty of sponge under my feet i was planning on putting in some serious mileage, that did not go to plan.

http://runkeeper.com/user/simonjcole/activity/60769403

After the 4th mile i was not feeling it. I don’t know why exactly but my legs were heavy and tired and i never really got into my groove. Not sure if it was the heavy sneakers compared to my Merrell Trail Gloves, my lack of eating this morning beforehand or trying to run in a correct form in sneakers, maybe some of all the above. Either way it was not a good run.

I’ll be back to the Merrell’s tomorrow or Thursday.

Related articles

• RW Holiday Running Streak: FAQs (trainingdaily.runnersworld.com)
• Cold barefeet? (ask.metafilter.com)

Putting a few miles in, with a barefoot run

So as usual my lack of patience got the better of me, i was itching to get a decent length of run in and wary of using the old running shoes that will encourage bring the heel strike back.

So i went for it in the Merrell trail gloves. Slightly shorter than usual but still a healthy 4.5 miles outside on varied terrain. Details can be found here at runkeeper.

Overall it felt pretty good. I feel i managed to control my running form throughout the run maintaining the mid foot strike. It is much easier to keep track of the form running on concrete than over grassy surfaces that are not flat.

I am actually pretty delighted with my progress. This is really only my 3rd real run in the shoes trying to adept to the barefoot mid foot strike and it seems to be going well. My calves are taking a beating from the change in foot posture but really other than that nothing serious to report.

The Merrell Trail Gloves feel fantastic with no blisters or rubbing problems to report. Which i am very impressed with as I don’t wear socks with them. I will write a full review post of the shoes shortly.

Happy running!

 

 

Run #3 5k on the Treadmill & a couple of observations

So this morning i had to have my work out on a treadmill. As it happens this worked out quite well. I  decided i would go for 5k and see how it went. It turned out within the controlled environment and static terrain of the treadmill  surface it was quite easy to concentrate on my foot landing and get into a rhythm. So i feel i hit my mid foot landing the entire time. Great practice and it felt much easier and more natural.

It also made a couple of observations. The treadmill had 3 default settings, walk, jog and run, It looked like the guy next to me had also set his to the “run” setting which was 6mph. With us both running, myself trying the mid-foot strike  and he was firmly a heel striker i noticed a couple of key differences.

• Firstly the sound. His was a clear “clomp, clomp, clomp” as his heel struck the matt and plastic frame of the treadmill, where my steps were clearly quieter and more of a “tap, tap, tap” sound. I am assuming this must be from the fact that my feet are now hitting the surface far more gently?
• Secondly and granted he was taller than i am which I’m sure accounted for a large part of this, my stride was much quicker / shorter than his even though i think we were running the same speed (6mph)

So overall i felt really good about this run, lets see how the calves hold up later today. Then hit the treadmill again tomorrow morning.

 

Barefeat a Father and Daughter Journey into Barefoot Running

Welcome to Bearfeat. This blog is about the running journey my daughter and i will be taking as i transition to barefoot running. The “Feats” we will achieve and races we will run.

For reasons of heart health i needed to up my exercise and so i started running to add to the soccer i played each week. To be honest i don’t really enjoy pounding out mile after mile on the blacktop so i needed to find some motivation to keep me going. I found this inspiration in the  form of the Warrior Dash (www.warriordash.com) A fun weekend in the north GA mountains with a muddy 5k in the middle of it all. I loved it running and jumping through the mud and obstacles took me back to being a kid again. I was hooked and mud runs we clearly the way to keep me motivated.

Since then i competed in the North Carolina Warrior Dash and the Merrell Down and Dirty Mud Run (www.downanddirtymudrun.com) The later being a 10k which i came in 27th on my age bracket with a time of 1 hour 10 mins.

It was around my training for the Merrell Mud Run that i started to get into the concept of barefoot running. I have been a heel strike walker / runner all my life. A look at my shoes wear patterns will show that straight away. Looking at my running calendar i have a break of about 2 or 3 months before my next mud run over the holiday period. I have decided to use this time to start all over and correct my running technique. So my 9-year-old daughter and i will be starting out our barefoot running journey together . We have both got a pair Merrell Trail gloves’ and are raring to go and learn to run all over again!

Sophie and Simon's new barefoot Merrell Trail Gloves

Related articles

• Merrell Trail Glove Review (moaimartialarts.com)
• Warrior Dash: My Couch to 5k Success Story (kdstern.wordpress.com)
• BLOG POST: Barefoot Running (totalrunningperformance.com)
• Don’t transition with an ankle injury (runbarefootrunhealthy.com)